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Fragments of stone engraved with abstract designs are the earliest art in the British Isles.

Greta Thunberg has warned that we have wasted valuable time in the fight against global heating. We need Green New Deals

In the early days of the pandemic, many people urged that societies could not and should not return to business as usual afterwards. Coronavirus not only confronted us with danger, but showed what was possible. By forcing massive overnight change, it demonstrated that dramatic action could be taken when a crisis was urgent enough; that many people could agree to make sacrifices when truly necessary; and that governments could invest trillions when the future of their countries demanded it. But as the great pause has turned into a gradual reopening, there is little sign that these lessons have been learned.

Greta Thunberg’s call for climate action should be seen in this context. The campaigner, writing for the Guardian to mark the second anniversary of her first school strike, says the world has wasted that time. While millions have been inspired to follow her in protest, and the European parliament has declared a climate and environmental emergency, little action has resulted.

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An unusual partnership between an asphalt manufacturer and a green group has produced Australia’s first road surfaces made from the ubiquitous waste item

In a secret location in an industrial area in western Sydney, a test strip of asphalt is being laid.

But this is no ordinary road.

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Remember when you would take your TV to get repaired if it was broken? Now, most people just buy a new one. When a new phone comes out, we ditch the old one. Each time we do this we're eating into a finite supply of resources and creating mountains of waste. A circular economy – also known as closing the loop – is when used items don't end up in landfill, but instead become the building blocks for new products. There's a whole industry waiting to be developed in Australia, if governments would get on board.

• This man turns discarded coffee cups into roads

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Remember when you would take your TV to get repaired if it was broken? Now, most people just buy a new one. When a new phone comes out, we ditch the old one. Each time we do this we're eating into a finite supply of resources and creating mountains of waste. A circular economy – also known as closing the loop – is when used items don't end up in landfill, but instead become the building blocks for new products. There's a whole industry waiting to be developed in Australia, if governments would get on board.

• This man turns discarded coffee cups into roads

Continue reading...

The California Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee (IEMAC) will publish its annual report this fall that is likely to provide state regulator ARB with additional suggestions on how to grapple with the allowance glut in its WCI-linked cap-and-trade programme.

EUAs rose towards €27 early on Wednesday on strong demand at the bumper UK auction, but failed to hold on to the gains amid news of a bloc-wide emissions registry outage.

The UK has financed 39 climate projects in developing countries that resulted in 31 Mt of CO2e reduced or avoided over 2011-2020, the government said in a report on Wednesday, a rate of abatement eclipsed by emissions growth that campaigners say is a result of its fossil fuel funding.

US biofuel credits (RINs) briefly rallied on Wednesday morning after President Donald Trump said he will speak to EPA officials regarding refiners’ applications for retroactive “gap filling” compliance waivers under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Huge dam projects that came on stream in the 1970s substantially slowed the rate of sea level rise.

AEMC seeks feedback on proposed reforms, that would establish big batteries as their own kind of market participant in the National Electricity Market.

The post Battery storage to get new set of rules as regulators play catch-up to new technology appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The EU’s carbon market has been hit by technical issues this week, including a server outage on Wednesday that was preventing participants from accessing their registry accounts or processing allowance transactions.

A new UK target will be set to protect people from the effects of breathing in tiny particles.

Government is consulting industry on technology which can take control of a vehicle at up to 70mph.

Satellite images capture tug boats trying to remove the broken vessel, which spilled tonnes of oil.

The project promotes linking of carbon market activities with national climate change policies and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). GIZ is recruiting advisor on Global Carbon Markets Project to support in the implementation of its programmes.

Campaigners ask authors of two reviews of TfL finances to look again at scheme

Plans to build a four-lane road tunnel under the Thames in London should be dropped as part of an overhaul of transport spending in the capital, campaigners say.

Opponents of the proposed £1.2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme have written to the authors of two separate reviews of Transport for London finances asking them to look again at the project.

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Campaigners say Sir James Bevan is trying to ‘rig system’ and cover up decades of failure

The head of the Environment Agency has endorsed a proposal to water down laws on cleanliness of polluted rivers, lakes and coastlines after Brexit.

Campaigners say Sir James Bevan is trying to “rig the system” to cover up decades of failure by the agency.

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Landed power, built on theft, slavery and colonial looting, crushes our freedoms. A new campaign seeks to decolonise the countryside

Boris Johnson’s attack on English planning laws is both very new and very old. It is new because it scraps the system for deciding how land should be used, replacing it with something closer to the US model. It is old because it represents yet another transfer of power from the rest of us to the lords of the land, a process that has been happening, with occasional reversals, since 1066.

A power that in 1947 was secured for the public – the democratic right to influence the building that affects our lives – is now being retrieved by building companies, developers and the people who profit most from development, the landowners. This is part of England’s long tradition of enclosure: seizing a common good and giving it to the rich and powerful. Democracy is replaced with the power of money.

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New analysis from Green Energy Markets finds Queensland on track to meet just 37.5% renewables by 2030, falling well short of state government's 50% goal.

The post Queensland not on track to reach 50 per cent renewables, despite announcements appeared first on RenewEconomy.